Chiba Barbarians storm home

Date line: March 9th, 2014

With the Tokyo Gaijin RFC going through a baby boom with at least 7 babies due this year it was only natural that one would be born on a Rugby day to leave the under-manned Tokyo Gaijin RFC further short of players. Proud new father Mosese Rarasea was contemplating rugby or family, early on this particular Sunday morning, when the decision was made for him by his new addition and he had to race his wife to hospital. The Gaijin would not be granting Rarasea a celebratory gift on this day when they were convincingly beaten by the Chiba Barbarians.

The Chiba Barbarians, the best team in Chiba, began the game strongly and were up by two tries within the first ten minutes. The first was from a lineout maul and then they found a yawning gap through the middle of the Tokyo Gaijin backline.

Stung by this early dominance, the Gaijin finally fought their way into the Barbarians 22 metre area through good forward play and a string of penalties. Joffa Harris took a quick tap from a penalty about 8 metres out and the forwards stormed in behind him and Nic Pavesic came up with the try after crashing through a host of bodies. The coversion by Toshi Miyano was unsuccessful but the Gaijin showed they were there to play and were on the board at 12 v 5.

The Gaijin then made a match of it when Tomo Setoguchi scored a try after a strong run into the oppsoition forward pack by Nic Pavesic following yet another penalty against the Barbarians. Miyano again missed the conversion but the score was now a close 12 v 10 to the Barbarians.

Soon after this Gaijin centre Touch Roy was yellow carded for hitting an opponent high when he was miles offside from a quick tap penalty.

The Gaijin managed to keep the Barbarians out during this period but not long enough to keep their opponents from scoring late in the half when they easily found holes in the Gaijin backline defense. With the successful conversion the Chiba Barbarians would go into halftime with a 19 v 10 lead.

The Barbarians also had a forward yellow carded about 30 minutes into the game and not before time, as they gave away penalties from a multitude of ruck infringements.

At half time the Gaijin still strongly believed that a victory was possible but their backs would need to "mark up and take their man" in the backline as the Barbarians seemed to be finding holes at will and only last ditch defense or mistakes had saved the Gaijin from a bigger score line against them.

The Gaijin scored first in the second half from a  little used line out move, popularised by Apisai Bati, called "Banana". Joffa Harris came from the back of the line out, about 15 meters out, to get a quick throw from Tomo Setoguchi at the very front. He tried his best to fend off two defenders as he skirted the side line.  From the ensuing ruck Nic Pavesic smashed it forward and Gorka Gerediaga crashed over to score.  Game on at 19 v 15 to the Barbarians.

Unfortunately, with only two reserves, the Gaijin tired and the flood gates opened for the Barbarians. They scored soon after, once more through the porous Gaijin backline.  With the score now at 26 v 15 the Gaijin needed to step up but it was beyond them.

The Barbarians scored three more tries in the last 15 minutes to blow the score line out to a convincing 43 v 15. The Gaijin became a rabble and the tackling was a sight for sore eyes with their defensive line having more holes than a slice of swiss chhese. For one of the tries the Barbarians had a 3 man overlap which shows that the Gaijin had lost all forms of communication amongst their backs.

Their were some good performances for the Gaijin in the first half  but the second half would not be remembered fondly. Nic Pavesic, the eventul Man of the Match had a strong game as did Captain Lachlan Ainley.

SCORE: Chiba Barbarian RFC 43 (7 Tries, 4/7 conversions) TGRFC 15 (Nic Pavesic 1, Tomo Setoguchi 1, Gorka Gerediaga 1 tries, T. Miyano 0/3 conversions)

Man of the Match: Nic Pavesic

Goat of the Game: Touch Roy (for that yellow card)

TEAM:

1. Kosuke Yamamoto (Japan)

2. Tomo Setoguchi (Japan)

3. Gorka Gerediaga (Basque)

4. Lachlan Ainley (c) (Australia)

5. Andy Tindall (England)

6. Joffa Harris (Australia)

7. Nic Pavesic (Croatia)

8. Takashi Tanikawa (Japan)

9. Ryo Takahashi (Japan)

10. Toshi Miyano (vc) (Japan)

11. Yoshihiro Sato (Japan)

12. Touch Roy (Australia)

13. Hitoshi Chihara (Japan)

14. Wataru Sato (Japan)

15. Phillip Ferreira (South Africa)

Reserves: Blake Dorr (USA), Yamagen (Japan)